The Zulu people were placed in reserves and most arable land was given to the white people. Adopting a classic policy of divide-and-rule, the British established thirteen subkingdoms; Cetshwayo himself was banished. The Zulu people lost their unifying figure and were divided into warring factions, and from 1880 to 1889 the Zulu people north of the Thukela river were engaged in a civil war. Cetshwayo, having visited Britain and met Queen Victoria the previous year, was allowed to return in January 1883, but was given only a small portion of his old kingdom; the largest part was controlled by Prince Zibhebhu, leader of the Mandlakazi. Zibhebhu, whom the British supported, burned Cetshwayo's palace in July 1883, inflicting wounds on the King, who died a few months later.

In 1884, however, a group of about 200 Boers under Lucas Meyer supported the uSuthu faction under King Dinnzulu; this defeated Zibhebhu at the Battle of eTshaneni, north of the Mkhuze river, on June 5th, 1884. The Boers used this as an excuse to take most of the best Zulu grazing land of eBaqulusini and establish the so-called New Republic. They produced a `treaty', signed by Dinuzulu, ceding the territory. This action was condemned by the British government, which knew from its land commission of November 1878 regarding the disputed ZuluBoer territory west of Mzinyathi (Buffalo) and Ncome (Blood) rivers, that the Zulu king was only the custodian of the land and had no right in Zulu law to cede it.